Oregon women’s track and field came one step closer to achieving the rare Triple Crown on Saturday, winning a record-tying fourth straight NCAA Indoor Track and Field national title at the Randal Tyson Center in Fayetteville, Ark.
The win came courtesy a dominant performance in the 4×400 relay. The team of English Gardner, Chizoba Okodogbe, Laura Roesler and Phyllis Francis set a program record with a 3:30.22 mark, the best in the field. Francis’ anchor leg time of 51.42 was the best on the team, and her strong finish gave the Ducks their second 4×400 win in four years.
“All we could do today was control Oregon,” head coach Robert Johnson told goducks.com. “We were the captain of our own fate. A tip of the hat to the way all of our Ducks not only came out and competed today, but also supported and cheered each other on. This was an outstanding team effort.”
Oregon’s final score of 56 edged Kansas (44) and Louisiana State (43) with Arkansas finishing in fourth with 42.5.
“We fought for every point today,” senior Becca Friday said. “We stuck together all the way through the 4×4.”
Friday also made a solid contribution to the team. The distance runner rallied from ninth place to sixth down the stretch of the final lap, tallying three team points with a time of 4:39.23.
Behind her, senior middle distance runner Anne Kesselring finished tenth. Her 4:50.77 finish was far short of her indoor personal best — a program record 4:32.61 she clocked at the Husky Classic as a junior — but the Ducks didn’t end up needing her.
They did, however, need Gardner and Jenna Prandini in the 60 meters. The freshman Prandini’s surprising fifth-place finish in the 60 meters, coupled with Gardner’s routinely excellent second-place finish after a blazing 7.15 time, kept Oregon in the hunt with Kansas and LSU.
Later, Roesler’s runner-up finish in the 800 meters later pushed the Ducks into first. More importantly, the junior’s time of 2:03.89 broke a 31-year-old program record held by Leann Warren. All in all, Fayetteville was kind to the Fargo native, as she left with two school records.
To ice the win, Oregon relied on two athletes with championships already on their resume. Senior Jordan Hasay and redshirt senior Alexi Pappas, who paced Oregon to a NCAA cross country title last autumn, both added points in the 3,000 meters. Hasay, a 15-time All-American, took second with a time of 9:06.61. Pappas, a senior transfer from Dartmouth in her final appearance as a Duck, added another point for Oregon with her eighth-place finish in 9:12.38.
The Ducks have the opportunity to make history in the spring if the women can manage a repeat in the NCAA Outdoor National Championships hosted in Eugene on June 5-8. The Triple Crown consists of the NCAA cross country, indoor and outdoor national championships.